 MAY 7 • 2020 | 29

TV series like Billions, recently 
has appeared on Broadway in 
Harry Potter and 
the Cursed Child. 
She can be heard 
on more than 
200 audiobooks 
and loves the one 
coming out in May 
— Anna Solomon’
s 
The Book of V: A Novel. She 
understands the Jewish point of 
view through her father’
s side of 
the family.
Kaminsky, who acted at 
the Hope Summer Repertory 
Theatre in Holland, Michigan, 
listened to audiobooks before 
a colleague suggested she look 
into being a narrator.
“I feel really lucky making 
part of my living telling stories 
this way,
” Kaminsky said. “I feel 
part of a large community that 
earns a living in ways that make 
their lives joyful.
”
In the midst of a career as 
a voiceover artist, Alan Sklar 
listened to audiobooks, decided 
he could do that and arranged 
auditions with publishers.
“I’
ve always been 
a good salesman 
and started getting 
narrating jobs,
” 
said Sklar, who 
has recorded more 
than 200 books, 
including many of the Lawrence 
Block mysteries as well as Think 
Big and Kick Ass: In Business and in 
Life by Donald Trump and Bill 
Zanker. 
Sklar’
s routine involves read-
ing each book more than a 
month before recording, mak-
ing a list of words to check for 
pronunciation and adhering to 
a director in a recording studio.
When Sklar hasn’
t liked a 
book offered for narration, he 
said, he goes ahead with it any-
way with publisher assurances 
that “the book will sell like 
crazy.
” He tries to think of it as 
an “interesting challenge.
”
Charles Baxter, author of Saul 
and Patsy among many works 

of fiction, has been asked to lis-
ten to audition tapes to review 
audio versions of his works. He 
is conscientious about narrators 
because he has stopped listening 
to an audiobook due to what he 
considered an inept narrator. 
Baxter, who has taught in 
rural Michigan as well as at 
Wayne State University and the 
University of Michigan, has 
developed Michigan settings 
and Jewish characters because 
of his many years in Michigan 
and family within the Jewish 
faith through marriage. His next 
book, The Sun Collective, will be 
available this November in an 
audio version.
For those missing attendance 
at religious services, the Jewish 
Publications Society offers 
free narration of each week’
s 
Torah portion as well as the 
Bible. Visit jps.org, click on 
“Resources” and then click “JPS 
Audio Bible.
”
“Over 20 years ago, we looked 
for star readers, like Theodore 
Bikel and Tovah Feldshuh, for 
a variety of voices as narrators,
” 
said Rabbi Barry Schwartz, 
director, editor-in-chief and 
executive of the publishing 
organization that works with 
texts communicating Jewish 
thought and history. 
Voice variety in popular 
books has meaning for Beverly 
Jonas of Farmington Hills, who 
began listening to audiobooks 
when she needed eye surgery. 
Reading had always been a 
favorite pastime so a friend rec-
ommended audiobooks during 
her recovery. 
“Listening is a different kind 
of enjoyment,
” said Jonas, a 
Hadassah member who just fin-
ished Alice Hoffman’
s The World 
That We Knew. “It can be almost 
like listening to a movie. I usu-
ally listen over my morning cof-
fee, when I lose track of time, or 
when my husband is watching 
sports. I can listen to three 
books a week, and I’
ve joined an 
online book club.
” 

COURTESY OF EVA KAMINSKY

Eva 
Kaminsky 

Alan Sklar

COURTESY OF ALAN SKLAR

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